Pinochet's Prosecutor and Judge, All in One

Lewis Dolinsky

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 15, 2001

UNDER THE RULES of the Chilean justice system, Judge Juan Guzman of the Santiago Court of Appeals investigates, indicts, decides whether charges should go forward, presides at trial, renders a verdict and determines sentence, if any. There are many opportunities to argue with himself, especially in the murder-kidnapping case against former dictator Augusto Pinochet, which came to Guzman by lottery in 1998. Even though Guzman enjoys Pinochet's company and was pleased by his coup, he has indicted Pinochet twice.

Guzman, 61, had official dealings with Pinochet for a couple of years during the dictatorship, which lasted from 1973 to 1990: "He was very nice to me. I met him socially four or five times. I went to his home. He is a very civilized Chilean gentleman." And a good host, even when Guzman took his deposition.

Guzman answered questions by phone from Santiago. On Tuesday, he will speak at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law on "Justice and Human Rights in Chile Since the Return of Democracy," which, he says, is still a work in progress. (The trial system, for example, is changing to three-judge panels with a prosecuting magistrate.)

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This is not Guzman's first stay in the Bay Area. He spent four years in San Francisco as a child and returned in 1969-70 to work at Wells Fargo Bank headquarters. "I was doing a serious job but perhaps not very well," he recalls. "Anyhow, I didn't steal anything."

Guzman's initial indictment of Pinochet was thrown out on a technicality: Guzman had not taken Pinochet's statement in person but had used a Spanish diplomat as an intermediary while Pinochet was under house arrest in England. Does Guzman think Pinochet would have been charged in Chile if Spanish Judge Baltazar Garzon had not tried to extradite Pinochet to Spain and held him up in England for more than a year? "He would have been charged, but it would have been more difficult. People who support him became (gradually) accustomed to the idea that he might be prosecuted."

After Pinochet was sent back to Chile, and Guzman took Pinochet's "declaration," an appeals court panel knocked the charges down from "intellectual author" of the crimes to encubridor, which means having knowledge of crimes and not reporting them. Less than an accomplice. Not much for the guy in charge when thousands of Chileans and some foreigners were killed or tortured for their politics or their supposed politics.

The specific case links Pinochet to 58 killings and 17 disappearances in 1973, when military officers in the so-called Caravan of Death went from jail to jail executing prisoners. Guzman never expected Pinochet to face charges, "nor that I would be his judge. Little by little, I became convinced of the facts" - and had to proceed. About 15 people have been indicted in 22 related cases. One man is in jail; others are out on bail.

Guzman expects the Pinochet case to take at least three more years. Pinochet is 85.

Despite the assertions of Pinochet's defense team, Guzman doesn't think Pinochet is mentally incapacitated: "He has a lot of wit, expresses himself well, has a good memory. He does have some (physical) problems of the aged." (The day after Guzman spoke to The Chronicle, he acceded to the wishes of Pinochet's doctors and delayed booking and fingerprinting for a month.)

Guzman says that like many in the middle class, he thought that the elected (Marxist) president, Salvadore Allende, whom Pinochet deposed, was incompetent and that the country "would go to ruin. I did not know then that the (United) States was helping us go to ruin." By conspiracy and sabotage.

What don't North Americans understand about the Pinochet dictatorship?

"Even Chileans don't understand. The country was in a bad situation in the early '70s; the army saved our country. (Then) crimes took place in front of people, but they saw what they wanted to see. We were happier, we produced more - all this was supported by Pinochet's government. Now, 27 years later, justice is starting to act. The justices are not heroes but simple people attached to jobs. We were afraid of having people in power believe that we were against power. That meant persecution, exile or being fired. Many judges did what they could; some had to resign. We cannot expect them to be superhuman."

Do you look upon this as a chance to atone?

"Yes." .

Unfair Advantage

A bill introduced by an independent member of the legislature in New South Wales, Australia, and backed by the state's Labor Party government, would deny parents the right to cite "lawful correction" as a justification for beating their children on the head or neck - or for more than a short time. Many conservatives condemn the bill as "social engineering."

Charlie Lynn of the Liberal Party (which is right of center) argued that the legislation discriminates against whites. He said parents of dark-skinned children could get away with bruising them because the marks would not show.

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Alternative View

A Serbian American reader decries the emphasis on getting former dictator Slobodan Milosevic quickly to The Hague war crimes tribunal:

"Preparing a good case and having him publicly tried in Belgrade Ôfor crimes against his own people' would cleanse the whole political spectrum of dozens of criminal characters who are still walking freely (and whose misdeeds,

such as corruption and murder, are not war crimes). Milosevic was a center of a coordinated system of abuse of power. This is a moment to try to change the nature of Balkan politics, from a power-mongering license to get-rich quick to a public service, where abuse will be punished by the law. This could be a first for the Balkans not because it changes the man at the top, but because it retires a system of government and replaces it with a new one.

"I would think that supporting that kind of development is also aligned with international interests. The senseless drumming to get Milosevic's political corpse for some act of revenge in The Hague is not helping." .

The Challenge

China's Communist Party was not pleased when expatriate Gao Xingjian won the Nobel Prize for literature for 2000. A review in the state-run Yangcheng Evening News, cited by Christine Xiaoting Xu of Cox News Service, said "Soul Mountain," Gao's experimental novel of self-revelation, is dreadful. The review said the award was a joke on the Chinese people - read the book and see.

How? All Gao's works are banned in China.

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